Burke’s Speech on East India Bill -part-05
EDMUND BURKE In Bengal, Seraja Dowla was sold to Mir Jaffier; 29 Mir Jaffier was sold to Mir Cossim;30 and Mir Cossim was sold to Mir Jaffier again. 31 The succession to Mir Jaffier was sold to his eldest son;32 another son of Mir Jaffier, Mobarech ul Dowlah, was sold to his step-sold to mother. 33 The Mahratta Empire was Ragobah;34 and Ragobah was sold and delivered to the Peishwa of the Mahrattas. 35 Both Ragobah and the Peishwa of the Mahrattas were offered to sale to the Rajah of Berar. 36 Scindia, 37 the chief of Malwa, was offered to sale to the same Rajah; and the Subah of the Deccan38 was sold to the great trader, Mahomet Ali, Nabob of Arcot. To the same Nabob of Arcot they sold Hyder Ali and the kingdom of Mysore. 39 To Mahomet Ali they twice sold the kingdom of Tanjore. 40 To the same Mahomet Ali they sold at least twelve sovereign princes, called the Polygars.41 But to keep things even, the territory of Tinnevelly, belonging to their Nabob, they would have sold to the Dutch;42 and to conclude the account of sales, their great customer, the Nabob of Arcot himself, and his lawful succession, has been sold to his second son, Amir ul Omrah, whose character, views, and conduct, are in the accounts upon your table. It remains with you whether they shall finally perfect this last bargain. All these bargains and sales were regularly attended with the waste and havoc of the country; always by the buyer, and sometimes by the object of the sale. This was explained to you by the honorable mover, when he stated the mode of paying debts due from the country powers to the Company.44 An honorable gentleman, who is not now in his place.objected to his jumping near two thousand miles for an example. 45 But the southern example is perfectly applicable to the northern claim, as the northern is to the southern; for, throughout the whole space of these two thousand miles, take your stand where you will, the proceeding is perfectly uniform, and what is done in one part will apply exactly to the other. My second assertion is, that the Company never has made a treaty which they have not broken. This position is so connected with that of the sales of provinces and kingdoms, with the negotiation of universal distraction in every part of India, that a very minute detail may well be spared on this point. It has not yet been contended, by any enemy to the reform, that they have observed any public agreement. When I hear that they have done so in any one instance, (which hitherto, I confess, I never heard alleged) I shall speak to the particular treaty. The governor general has even amused himself and the Court of Directors in a very singular letter to that board, in which he admits he has not been very delicate with regard to public faith; and he goes so far as to state a regular estimate of the sums which the Company would have lost, or never acquired, if the rigid ideas of public faith entertained by his colleagues had been observed. 46 The learned gentleman over against me has, indeed, saved me much trouble. On a former occasion he obtained no small credit, for the clear and forcible manner in which he stated, what we have not forgot, and I hope he has not forgot, that universal, systematic breach of treaties which had made the British faith proverbial in the East. It only remains, Sir, for me just to recapitulate some heads. The treaty with the Mogul, by which we stipulated to pay him £ 260,000 annually, was broken. This treaty they have broken, and not paid him a shilling. They broke their treaty with him, in which they stipulated to pay £ 400,000 a year to the Subah of Bengal.48 They agreed with the Mogul, for services admitted to have been performed, to pay Nudjif Cawn a pension. 49 They broke this article with the rest, and stopped also this small pension. They broke their treaties with the Nizam, 50 and with Hyder Ali.51 As to the Marattas, they had so many cross treaties with the States General of that nation, and with each of the chiefs, that it was notorious, that no one of these agreements could be kept without grossly violating the rest. It was observed, that if the terms of these several treaties had been kept, two British armies would at one and the same time have met in the field to cut each other’s throats. The wars that desolate India originated from a most atrocious violation of public faith on our part. In the midst of profound peace, the Company’s troops invaded the Maratta territories, and surprised the island and fortress of Salsette. 52 The Marattas nevertheless yielded to a treaty of peace, by which solid advantages were procured to the Company. 53 But this treaty, like every other treaty, was soon violated by the Company. Again the Company invaded the Maratha dominions. The disaster that ensued gave occasion to a new treaty. The whole army of the Company was obliged, in effect, to surrender to these injured, betrayed, and insulted people. Justly irritated, however, as they were, the terms which they prescribed were reasonable and moderate; 54 and their treatment of their captive invaders of the most distinguished humanity. But the humanity of the Marattas was of no power whatsoever to prevail on the Company to attend to the observance of the terms dictated by their moderation. The war was renewed with greater vigor than ever; and such was their insatiable lust of plunder that they never would have given ear to any terms of peace, if Hyder Ali had not broke through the Gauts, and rushing like a torrent into the Carnatic, swept away everything in his career. This was in consequence of that confederacy which by